17 July 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk
pipeline.
Explaining the decision to directly
couple the electrolysis to the turbine,
Kinsella said that the team initially
explored a number of options, such as
bringing power back to a centralised
platform with electrolysers before
piping hydrogen back to shore, or
performing electrolysis onshore,
but went for direct coupling as it
avoids the need for expensive cables,
switchgear, and grid connections.
“It’s a much cheaper way of doing it
over long distances and you don’t get
the energy losses that you do with
bringing it back electrically,” he said.
Freeing the system from the
constraints of grid connectivity also
makes it easier to build further out to
sea where the wind resource is more
plentiful, and it’s possible to build large scale installations
without impacting shipping routes or raising environmental
concerns.
Kinsella said that a 4GW Dolphyn array could produce
enough hydrogen to heat 1.5 million homes, and could
ultimately transform the UK’s energy landscape. “There’s no
reason at all why, by the end of the century, the whole of UK
heat couldn’t be provided by green hydrogen from offshore
North Sea wind”, he said.
It’s a tantalising vision, and one which is well within the
UK’s grasp, not least thanks to the wealth of expertise and
infrastructure that can be found in its offshore oil and gas
industry.
President of the Energy Institute and former UK National
Grid boss Steve Holliday told The Engineer that the sector’s
buy-in will be crucial. “The only way we’re going to ensure the
world has energy supplies, and at the same time making sure
we’re cleaning our energy up…. is with the huge engineering,
scientific and financial strength of the oil and gas industry,” he
Echoing the call for incentivisation,
Jo Bamford called on the government
to prioritise hydrogen over other more
crowded fields of energy technology,
such as batteries. “Every country in
the world is going to come out of the
crisis with plans to revitalise their own
economy and every single one of those
plans is going to be around how to do
we make it green. And if every single
one of them is going to chase batteries,
it looks like a crowded field to me. As
a businessman you go somewhere
where you can compete and come out
on top. There are far less people chasing
hydrogen.”
There’s certainly a strong sense that
the technology plays to many of the
UK’s existing strengths: “We’ve got a
massive renewable resource on our
doorstep which is great advantage
for us,” said Steve Holliday “This is an
opportunity not just on our own journey
to net zero in the UK but to actually
create some industry that is very
competitive and can be exported around
the world.”
Indeed, in the form of ITM Power, the
UK is already home to one of the world’s
biggest electrolyser manufacturers,
something which ITM’s Graham
Cooley believes deserves a little more
recognition. “We don’t have the world’s
largest battery factory, we don’t have the
world’s largest heat pump factory , we
don’t have the largest solar cell producer
and we don’t have the world’s largest
wind turbine blade manufacturer –
what we do have is the world’s largest
electrolyser factory in Sheffield. And we
ought to be singing from the rooftops
about that!”
ERM’s Kevin Kinsella agreed
with the positive outlook. “We’re in the
best position in Europe, having the best
wind resources by far. We have a leading
offshore oil and gas industry
and offshore wind industry, supported
by the best supply chain in Europe,
and all of the technical resources and
knowhow to deliver it. With Net Zero
by 2050 written into UK law, this is a
fantastic opportunity for the oil and
gas industry to transition smoothly
from fossil fuels to green energy, using
the same skills and resources, and at
the same time become a net exporter of
green energy to Europe.”
+ -
said. “They have a huge part to play. And this particular topic
is just another example of where they can bring all of those
skills and experiences to bear.”
Oil and Gas UK policy manager Will Webster, agreed
that the sector has an important role to play and that green
hydrogen could represent a major opportunity as wetransition
to a zero carbon economy. “Many energy transition
technologies are an opportunity for existing oil and gas
businesses,” he said. “Offshore wind (fixed and floating),
carbon capture and hydrogen are all areas which have
transferable skills and expertise from the offshore oil and
gas sector including project management, safety disciplines,
operations, subsurface data analysis and logistics”
In Holliday’s view, what’s required now is some serious
government intervention aimed at ensuring the sector has
the best possible chance of delivering on its promise. “It feels
to me a little like the world we were in a decade ago with zero
carbon solar and wind,” he said. “We needed to kickstart those
industries in the UK with incentives and those incentives
worked. Offshore wind’s a perfect example. You were looking
3 /4 years ago at £140 /MW of offshore wind and now they’re
coming in at the high £30s. We’re going to need to incentivise
some scaling up of green hydrogen in order to bring the costs
of that technology down to a level that means it’s going to be
economic and logical to tie it in with the wind and the solar.”
Electrolyser modules
produced by UK firm
ITM Power (above)
are already used in a
number of applications,
including the
generation of hydrogen
on a number of Shell
forecourts
in the UK (left)
Offshore wind produces
renewable electricity
Renewable electricity splits water
into oxygen and renewable hydrogen
Humber Refinery uses renewable
hydrogen reducing CO2 emissions
O2 H2
WATER
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